NEWSINTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION AND REDUCTION

Photo 1 Group photograph of participants

This conference took place from July 26 to 29, 2011, at Far Eastern State Transport University in Khabarovsk, Russia (Photos 1 to 2). It was organized by Professor Sergey A. Kudryavtsev, General Secretary of Organizing Committee of 4IGS under auspices of Asian Technical Committee 3 for geotechnical natural disasters (ATC3), Russian Geotechnical Society and Kazakhstan Geotechnical Society. As shown in its title, this series of conference is intended to exchange and disseminate in Far East the up-to-date knowledge and experience both internationally and domestically. The first conference was realized in 2005 in Astana of Kazakhstan by Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov (Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan) and Prof. Takaji Kokusho (Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan) under the auspices of ATC3 for geotechnicaal natural disasters and this frame work has been maintained during the following occasions in Yuzno-Sakhalinsk (2007, Russia) and Harbin (2009, China). This year, the Khabarovsk conference attracted more than 150 paper submissions and about 180 participants from China, Korea, Japan, India, Poland, Russia, and Kazakhstan (Photo 1).

The opening ceremony was led by Prof. Boris Dynkin who is the rector of the Far Eastern State Transport University (Photo 4) and keynote lectures together with oral presentations followed. The discussed topics included earthquakes and landslides together with a special emphasis on soil freezing. Photographs below show some aspects of the conference.